Women take break from Midtown protest to watch Senate Kavanaugh vote

September 28, 2018

A small group of protesters gather in front of Senator Chuck Schumer offices in Midtown Manhattan to protest Justice Kavanaugh nomination to the Supreme Court. Manhattan, NY. September 28, 2018 (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)

A group of women opposed to Judge Brett Kavanaugh took a break from a Midtown protest Friday to watch a crucial vote.on his U.S. Supreme Court nomination.

Huddled around a bank of iPhones, the demonstrators gathered outside U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer’s Third Ave. office to watch as a judicial subcommittee greenlighted a Kavanaugh vote before the full senate.

“I don’t have a lot of hope,” said Julie DeLaurier, 61, of Brooklyn. “Our only hope is to vote them out. I’ll see what November brings.” The 11-10 vote, which was strictly along party lines, came after U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (D – Ariz.) called for an FBI probe of sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh before the full senate votes.

Protesters were not impressed.

“That and $2.75 will get you a subway ride,” said Laura Brahm, 53, of Brooklyn.

“What happened yesterday was so grotesque,” Brahm said of Thursday’s senate testimony from Kavanaugh and his accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford .“It’s a type of misogyny that is just being laid bare — misogyny in a way we thought was over.”

The Rev. Posey Krakowsky, a priest at Manhattan’s Episcopal Church of the Ascension, and a sexual assault survivor, said her congregants, “are dismayed and unhappy with this choice.”

“In the past two weeks, I have had more people recount their stories of sexual violence to me,” she said. “People feel empowered to speak up. I certainly hope he is defeated. I’m not the one voting, but I’ll be voting in November.”